Heather's Journey: From ICU to Recovery

Hi, My name is Kasey, I am Heathers Cousin.

On April 10th, 2025

Heather and her son Rylan were in a fender bender. The woman who rear ended them told officers that she had insurance but come to find out she was not truthful and her insurance is not valid. Though, both Heather and Rylan seemed fine. They did not believe they needed medical attention and they went home, after giving a statement to officers.

Friday morning, April 11th 2025, Heather woke up with double vision, splitting headache, vomiting, and dizziness so she decided to go to the ER. After hours of being at the hospital, they diagnosed her with a concussion. At the hospital, she was given muscle relaxer and a pain medication and sent home. Heather then got home, ate a little food, took her nightly meds and went to bed.

Saturday morning, April 12th 2025, Heather’s 13 year old son Rylan went to go check on her. He found her unresponsive and then went and got his grandparents and they called 911.

Due to meds given in the hospital and nightly meds, Heather vomited and aspirated on her vomit. She then went into cardiac arrest. The ambulance came and did 8 rounds (25 minutes total) of CPR to revive Heather. She was then transported to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Clinic in Vancouver, WA. Once at the hospital, Heather was intubated and taken directly to ICU. Heather spent 8 days in the ICU, 7 of those being intubated and sedated.

Heather has been breathing tube free since Friday April 18th 2025 and has been moved to the cardiac floor for observation. Heather is a single mother, who will be without work for an unknown amount of time. She will need rehab in order to hopefully fully recover.

Unfortunately at this time there are still a lot of unknowns and we all are just trying to take it day by day and support Heather and her son Rylan as much as humanly possible. All donations will go to monthly bills, Rylan’s care, and getting them back home to Idaho once Heather has finished her medical care in Washington.